


Crow Forest

by zenelly



Series: JohnDave Week 2016 [5]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Swan Lake Fusion, JohnDave Week, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 14:09:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7442188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenelly/pseuds/zenelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For JohnDave Week 2016, Day 5 - Free Space,</p>
<p>Which, for some reason, in my mind, translated to "BUT WHAT IF SWAN-LAKE AU"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crow Forest

**Author's Note:**

> this is a day late and i am sorry

 When the night comes, so does he. When the day breaks, so does he.

This is a cycle that you’ve, unfortunately, gotten used to over the course of several years.

You sneak out of the castle on quiet footsteps, holding your breath tight within your chest as the guards pass you by. As you have for the last three years, you are not caught as you make your way silently across the parapet, down the rough surface of the wall, into the lower city. Then further, out into the woods, into a clearing long since made a meeting place.

Patient, you track the rising of the moon.

It breeches the tops of the trees.

There is a step, the break of branches beneath feet.

A pale-haired boy walks into the clearing, eyes wide and dark in the moonlight, and you smile, wave, stretching unnecessarily onto your toes. Straining, like a magnet, towards him. “Hey!”

He smiles back, waves as the two of you find your way towards each other. You sit in the soft grass, pat him to sit down beside you. “How’ve you been?” you ask him.

“Fine, fine, you know how restful the life of a woodsboy is,” he says, grinning wryly, his teeth bright against his dark skin. You grin back, reach out, place your hand on his, and feel a thrill in your bones when he does not move away.

This, too, is something you have done for the last three years.

Before you knew him, he was skittish, nervous. Hovering around the edges of the clearing or actually running away. You had stumbled across him one night, and since then, you….

Well, you haven’t really stayed away. You wooed him close to you, just to talk, nothing more, you swear, because even though you _are_  the heir to your kingdom, you really just. Want to have a friend. Someone who knows nothing about your rank and just knows you as a person. Someone you can talk to about anything, and everything, without worrying about the ramifications of your speech.

Someone like him.

You don’t even know his name.

(Not because you haven’t asked, mind you, but rather because he gets a pinched, tight look around his mouth when you do and just shakes his head until you drop it.)

The moon tracks across the night sky as you two talk, and the shadows change on your friend’s face. His head jerks up as soon as the first hints of blue-red light start lightening the sky, and you know that you’re about to lose him again for another night.

“When can I see you again?” you ask.

It is a long time before he answers, but finally, he says, “Tomorrow still works fine for me, but we’ll need to take a break after that. After all,” and he smiles, the expression self-deprecating and sad, “I can’t have you get too much of me all at once, right?”

“Right,” you say.

If you could, you would have him live with you. If you could, you would see him every day. You can’t, but oh, you wish.

His skin is warming as the light grows, and he stands quickly. You feel his absence at your side as a physical ache. He waves goodbye as he darts into the trees, and as the sun breeches the clearing, there is the rush of wings.

As they have every morning you have seen your friend for the last three years, a flock of crows burst forth from the trees as day breaks.

You stand, brushing off your pants as you sigh.

One day, maybe, you’ll get to know what his name is.

Maybe, one day, you’ll get to know everything there is to know about him.


End file.
